I've been watching a most curious DVD of Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne, which contains 2/3 of the traditional score as set after its 1873 revision and approximately a third of music that was cut before the original production opened. The editors of this version went back to the libretto and score submitted to the censor before rehearsals began to reconstruct the edition. Musically, it's very well done, and the unfamiliar numbers are a delight. The cast is good, but the direction, choreography and design are really pathetic, the nadir coming in a new Act Three quintet on the beauties of Parisian women where the male dancers in drag perform a fashion show of corsets and lingerie.
